Drug Court helps addicts

AYER -- Looking out at a sea of familiar faces, Ayer Drug Court Judge Michael Brooks smiles as he asks "Kelly," a recovering heroin addict, how she is doing with her sobriety.

"Great," she says, stuffing her hands in the pockets of her maroon Harvard University sweatshirt. "I got an 'A' on a term paper," she boasts.

Although Kelly has had two brief relapses since she started the yearlong Ayer Drug Court program, she sought help from people within the program and has returned to keep fighting her demons.

"We know that relapsing is part of the disease," Kerin Raymond told Kelly reassuringly. "Use the program when you need to and don't run away," said Raymond, the Mass. State Drug Court coordinator who helps run the Ayer District Court's program.

As her fellow Drug Court participants applaud her success, Kelly grabs a free lollipop provided to participants and sits on one of the wooden benches to listen to the next person called to face the judge.

This is the scene every Thursday afternoon in a small second-floor courtroom in the Ayer court.

Firm but fair program

Drug Court is an innovative program provided only in Ayer and Concord district courts in Middlesex County, Raymond said.

The program is a mix of counseling, the threat of jail, and a dose of the philosophy behind Alcoholics Anonymous and other treatment programs.

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It is designed to help recovering drug addicts on probation stay on the road to recovery and out of jail.

Florida created Drug Court in the late-1980s, Brooks said. There are 2,663 drug court-type programs across the nation serving more than 120,000 people, according to the National Association of Drug Court Professionals. In Massachusetts, Boston started a program in the late 1990s, but most of the programs at that time were focused on alcohol abuse.

In 2001, Ayer District Court Judge Peter Kilmartin latched onto the idea. Since then, Ayer's program has become a sort of hybrid that focuses on people who suffer from alcohol, drug and prescription-drug addictions.

While the federal government initially funded Ayer's program, federal funds dried up and Ayer's Drug Court struggled to stay afloat, unfunded, for several years until 2009 when it landed two federal grants.

Over the next three years, Ayer and Concord Drug Court programs will share a total of $1.2 million. Part of the grant includes $900,000 for technology.

Raymond said Ayer's Drug Court is the only program in the nation that received a technology grant that allows each participant to use a $50 cell phone with specific applications that let them communicate with program members, find meetings, etc.

Brooks noted that Drug Court is cheaper than jail. It costs $2,700 per year per person to fund Drug Court using federal funds, while it costs $43,000 per year to house someone behind bars.

Recognition, skepticism

In February, Rep. Sheila Harrington presented the Ayer Drug Court team with a citation in "recognition of their support, dedication and professionalism.''

Some skeptics see this program as being soft on crime, but Ayer District Court Probation Chief Susan Reed said, "It is far from that.''

Reed admits when she first heard of Drug Court she thought it was a lot of baloney. She quickly changed her mind.

"After being in the program for a while, some people beg to go to jail because it is a difficult program to follow. It is much harder than regular probation,'' Reed said.

The secret to the program's success is the "team approach,'' Brooks said. "It is tougher than regular probation because there is extensive monitoring.''

Before they faced the participants last Thursday, a team of prosecutors, defense attorneys, probation officers, police officers, advocates, a sessions clerk and the judge sat behind closed doors for an hour to discuss the progress and setbacks of the 28 or so drug court participants due in court that day.

To protect anonymity -- much like Alcoholics Anonymous -- confidentiality is key. But to promote familiarity and create a bond, the judge and other Drug Court personnel address the participants by their first names.

Being a participant in Drug Court is a privilege, Brooks said, and not a program to be entered into lightly, he warns. Participants have been convicted of a drug possession or drug-related crimes and are recommended by police, attorneys or probation. They agree to participate in Drug Court as part of their probation.

Drug dealers, sex offenders and arsonists need not apply.

Tough rules, good results

It is a four-phase program with mandatory steps, such as a specific number of counseling sessions, Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, drug screens and other strict requirements per week.

The first phase is eight weeks, then the participate must show he or she should be moved into the next phases. The second and third phases are 12 weeks and the fourth phase is 20 weeks.

It should take about a year to complete the phases, but Brooks said in dealing with addictions very few participates achieve "graduation'' within that time. Most take two to three years to finish the program.

On average five to six people graduate the program per year. The result is a drug-free probationer who works, raises a family, contributes to society and above all, stays out of trouble.

The recidivism rate among Drug Court graduates is low, Raymond said. Nationwide, 75 percent of Drug Court graduates remain arrest-free at least two years after leaving the program, according to NADCP statistics.

Relapses can be forgiven with a sanction, such as performing community service, but a new arrest or failure to show up can be a deal breaker -- expulsion from the program.

Last Thursday, "John,'' a Drug Court participant, was a no show. Now there is an arrest warrant with his name on it.

Another newcomer to the program had two positive drug tests three days before walking into Drug Court and hadn't attended any Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in a week, yet he denied using drugs.

"I think you used,'' Brooks said bluntly.

Being kicked out of the program is considered a probation violation and can result in going to jail. That's the sword that hangs over each participant's head.

Drug Court defense attorney Susan Edgett, who works alongside attorney Ernest Hyde, said in criminal court her job is to get the best deal for her client. In Drug Court her goal is to do what is best for the client and the community. Sometimes that means agreeing that the client should be locked up.

"I look at the whole person,'' Edgett said. "Sometimes you have to detain the person for their own good and the good of the community,'' she said.

Reed said, "Some graduates have told me that when they first started they hated Drug Court, they hated me, they hated all of us. But at the end of it they tell me, 'Thank you.'''

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